So-called “happy” globalisation is now a thing of the past. ​​With it, the promise of continuous growth based on the indefinite intensification of international trade has faded. ​​The turn of the 2020s marks a profound rupture in the global economic and geopolitical order, under the combined effect of major shocks — the Covid-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, the rise of economic sanctions, the resurgence of inflation, the resurgence of protectionism — as well as the rise of the fourth industrial revolution driven by digital technology and artificial intelligence. In this context, the transformations brought about by technological giants with unprecedented capitalisation are reshaping the economic, social and political balance on a global scale. ​​This volume of the Revue d’économie financière analyses these recompositions through the contributions of thirteen experts, articulated around three structuring axes. The first part examines the questioning of the international order. ​​Geopolitical tensions have led to an increasing fragmentation of world trade, which is now structured around strategic blocs. ​​Security is emerging as an organising principle of international relations, reconfiguring economic interdependencies. ​​The asymmetries resulting from globalisation, formerly vectors of integration, are becoming instruments of power and coercion. ​​In this context, Europe is faced with an imperative to strengthen its strategic autonomy, both militarily and energetically, as well as financially and digitally. The second part analyses the changes in contemporary capitalism in an environment marked by systemic crises since 2008. ​​The hypothesis of convergence towards a single model has given way to a plurality of trajectories. ​​American market capitalism and Chinese state capitalism now structure the global economy, while Europe is developing its own path, based on normative framework and the search for a balance between innovation and protection. ​​These differences are particularly evident in the development of artificial intelligence, which has become a major strategic issue. The third part deals with monetary and financial fragmentation. ​​It recalls, from a historical perspective, the constant intertwining of finance and geopolitics, characteristic of the great economic powers. ​​The question of monetary sovereignty is addressed in close connection with that of the sovereignty of payments. ​​While Europe has a sovereign currency, it remains dependent on largely extraterritorial payment infrastructures. ​​This vulnerability is a major strategic issue in a context where financial instruments can become levers of economic pressure. Through these analyses, this volume aims to contribute to the debate on the new dynamics of power and the conditions for European strategic autonomy in a permanently fragmented world. Philippe Alezard

This book tells the extraordinary story of life and natural intelligence, from the emergence of protocells four billion years ago to the appearance, 500 million years ago, of organisms endowed with mind, feelings and consciousness, thanks to a radical novelty: the nervous system. For the author, current advances in neurobiology can provide satisfactory answers to the question of the “manufacture” of consciousness. ​​According to him, this is “the biological process that allows everyone to experience their individual life, in other words, to know that we are alive and that we exist“. ​​The complex beings that we are come into the world equipped with biological mechanisms to protect the life we have against major threats that could jeopardise it. ​​These mechanisms are “homeostatic” feelings, which participate in the regulation of life by maintaining key organs or functions in an ideal range: “homeostasis”. This is the fundamental break proposed by Damasio. ​​Consciousness is not born in the brain, but in the feelings necessary to sustain life. ​​It emerges from a permanent dialogue, via the spinal cord and the vagus nerve, between the inside of the body and certain areas of the brain, much more differentiated than those dedicated to cognition. ​​This dialogue is that of interoception. ​​The continuation of life depends on the reliability of the information it provides and the responses that the subject provides. ​​We feel before we think. ​​Hunger, thirst, pain or fatigue are conscious biological responses to the vulnerability of life. ​​Interoceptive or homeostatic feelings are spontaneously conscious, with a single purpose: to inform the entire mental process with warning signals that cannot be ignored. ​​We are thus viscerally aware, what the author calls the “sensitive mind”. Nature has given this sensitive spirit two valuable allies: exteroception, which brings together all the sensory receptors – sight, hearing, taste, touch, smell – allowing us to connect to our environment, and proprioception, which makes all voluntary movements such as walking, eating, running or talking possible. ​​Consciousness is therefore not a software installed in the brain, but the juxtaposition of all these living processes. The brain alone does not hold the key to mental processes: it depends on the physiology of the body and the non-neural components of the brain. ​​Natural intelligence is a property of the living, which sets it apart from artificial intelligence, which does not have to worry about its life since it does not have one. ​​AI has no homeostatic feelings. ​​Machines can process huge amounts of information, speed up many tasks and reduce costs, but they cannot rely on the feelings that allow us to sort things out. ​​They remain dependent on their human owners – and humans can be bad. It is this conscious vulnerability, a distinctive feature of human intelligence, that should be introduced into AI. ​​It would induce a form of artificial prudence that could inhibit risky behaviour just as it has led to the development of moral systems and justice in humans.  ​​ Antonio Damasio, Professor of Neuroscience, Neurology, Psychology and Philosophy at the University of California. ​​He heads the Brain and Creativity Institute. ​​Member of the National Academy of Medicine and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Ph Alezard

The latest book by Eric Carrey and Hubert Landier raises an issue that is currently much debated in all cultures around the world, centered on the two strongly synergistic concepts of “meaning and care” applied to the planet, humanity, society, business and the individual. ​​ The authors emphasize that the numerous measures implemented over the past half-century at the international, national and local levels, in terms of sustainable development and social, environmental and governance responsibility, despite their progress, are insufficient to meet the expectations of producers, consumers and citizens. ​​Their quest for meaning in their actions and their aspirations for solidarity and well-being are thwarted by  governments’ desire to restore major economic and financial balances, by the attempts of workers’ attempt to adapt to new technologies, by f consumers ’fears of facing shortages, but also by the determination of more and more social actors to achieve the energy, ecological and digital transitions. The authors invite us to go beyond the canonical notions of homo economicus by recalling the genealogy of the concepts that have marked out the vast field of “meaning and care”: the economies of gift-giving, the common good, well-being, happiness; circular and frugal economies; cooperative, associative and partnership-based governance, CARE and CURE practices, etc. They revisit the notions of  sustainability, resilience, responsibility, solidarity, etc. Using illuminating ideal-type cases, the authors analyze the application of these concepts to the planet (water, air, earth) and to different objects (clothes, bottles, etc.).They strive to perceive the weak signals that herald the turning points in our civilization, its vital principles, its essential practices, its mobilizing values and its new languages. Hubert Landier (Doctor of Economics) is Professor Emeritus of Universities. ​​Eric Carrey (St Cyr, Exeter and ESSEC) is a professor of social and solidarity economics. Jean Jacques Pluchart

The author, a great reporter at Le Figaro, engages in a difficult and original exercise: to draw economic lessons from world fiction. ​​The exercise is particularly successful because the book enriches its readers with useful economic knowledge and valuable cultural contributions. ​​The author declines her literary career by rereading 18 works covering 6 periods. The first relates the lessons lavished by the authors of Genesis (the curse of work), Homer (the role of money), Hesiod (misery), Thucydides (the financing of war) and Petrone (manipulation and fraud). ​​The second covers medieval times, with Tristan and Isolde, the tale of the Grail, the Roman de Renart and the ballads of Christine de Pisan, which illustrate the difficult material and social conditions of peasants, women and the bourgeoisie of cities and fairs. ​​The third sequence is marked by the shift in the market economy, with analyses of the works of Shakespeare, Cervantes, Lafayette, La Fontaine, Rousseau and Casanova, marked by tensions between financial interests and friendship, rules of the past and the future, work and income, nature and culture, investment and speculation. ​​The fourth age is that of the transition from economics to the state of science with the economic lessons of Goethe, Austin, Stendhal, Balzac, Dostoievki, Zola, Mann and Wharton, who describe the effects of capitalism and conventions on the economic situations of women, the bourgeois, workers and consumers. ​​The next phase is devoted to London (work ethic), Kafka (the excesses of bureaucracy), Yourcenar (the end of religions), Akhmatova (totalitarianism), Ayn Rand (individualism), Perec (consumerism), Druon (social declassification), Pamuk (standardisation) and Wolf (ambition). ​​The last sequence focuses on 21st century literature, with books by Houellebecque (the attraction of platforms), Adiichie (migration), Coe (the torments of the middle class), Egan (the development of digital technology) and Koenig (digital and ecological transitions). Anne de Guigné’s book thus makes it possible to rediscover or discover the thoughts and biographies of authors who have lived through their century and economic laws that have spanned the centuries. ​​The author’s elegant and lively style gives the book a character that is both educational and cultural. Anne de Guigné is a senior reporter at Le Figaro, in charge of economic issues, and the author of several books. Jean-Jacques Pluchart

This is an essay on the “hidden” dangers of digital currency. As central banks around the world prepare to roll out their digital currencies (CBDCs), a historic shift is brewing in the shadows, according to the author.  This incisive and accessible investigative book delves into the heart of this silent revolution of technologies presented as innovative, secure, and practical, when “CBDCs actually conceal a logic of permanent surveillance, the extinction of cash, and algorithmic control of populations.” The author deciphers what he claims to be the real objectives of this technology, its intertwining with artificial intelligence, social credit, green passports, and digital identities. He highlights his vision of a global agenda, “shared by both Western institutions and emerging powers (BRICS+, etc.), aimed at establishing a cashless society, driven by algorithms and subject to behavioral compliance criteria.” However, the book does not mention the advantages of central bank digital currencies, nor the risks inherent in their implementation, nor the measures envisaged to manage these risks. There is a negative, even conspiratorial bias in some pages: “there is a technological mechanism which, under the guise of progress, threatens the autonomy of peoples and the very survival of humanity.” And again, “the ultimate goal of the financial elite is clear: to enslave humanity through eternal debt that people will carry until their last breath.” It is therefore not surprising that the information on this subject provided in this book is incomplete. This book claims to be an “intellectual weapon for resistance”: by calling for the reappropriation of monetary sovereignty, the preservation of gold and silver metal, and a questioning of the all-digital approach, the author « urges us not to become spectators of the fourth industrial revolution, but to actively challenge its most dangerous excesses. We must inspire the world and Europe by proving that an alternative is possible: reintroducing gold and silver, restoring the franc, and driving the merchants from the temple ». Marc Gabriel DRAGHI is a lawyer and essayist. Dominique Chesneau

The book begins with the observation of a profound crisis in the perception of work by our contemporaries. ​In the past, work was considered part of the human condition, earning a living by the sweat of one’s brow. ​It was then experienced as everyone’s participation in a collective progress that could benefit everyone. ​Today, the worker feels tossed about in the midst of non-negotiable considerations and changes, suffered rather than chosen.​ ​The social and moral context marked by the weakening of all collective benchmarks and the predominance of self-referential individualism only aggravates the malaise generated by deindustrialisation for nearly 30 years, and now the prospect of an AI that will apparently further reduce the need for human work. The authors then set out to show that the end of work is a chimera (as much a chimera as the end of history that was announced thirty years ago). ​They describe how and why, despite the desire to “restore the value of work” and other slogans, collective, political, fiscal and social choices have had the effect of discrediting work, hindering it and taxing it without helping companies to share a unifying quest for meaning with their employees. All in all, a book written by practitioners, Bertrand Martinot is a specialist in the issue of unemployment, employment policies and social dialogue. ​He received the 2014 Turgot Prize for a previous book Chômage: inverser la courbe (Unemployment: reversing the curve). ​He was social adviser to the Presidency of the Republic from 2007 to 2008, general delegate for employment and vocational training (DGEFP) from 2008 to 2012, then deputy director general of the Ile-de-France region in charge of economic development, employment and training until 2019. ​Franck Morel is a labour law lawyer. ​Advisor to Prime Minister Edouard Philippe and four labour ministers (Xavier Bertrand, Brice Hortefeux, Xavier Darcos and Eric Woerth). ​Both authors are associate experts at the Montaigne Institute. Hubert Rodarie

 ​This new publication by President Hubert RODARIE, an author who has been recognized and crowned many times, confirms his ability to challenge his readers (who willingly lend themselves to it) by inviting them to leave their comfort zone for an original reading of the major trends and other ruptures in the world.  ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ To look beyond the foam of the waves, to understand the underlying undertones that are at work in the upheavals of the planet. … ​​ ​One year after his return, President TRUMP is raising many questions by trying to brutally reshape international relations according to his vision of the new world, accompanying his diatribes with threats, potential recourse to force, establishing punitive customs duties and the unpredictability of his reversals of alliances.  ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​  Also, many see in this character nothing more than a revolutionary troublemaker undermining the consensus and the post-war world order, arousing contempt with his vulgarity and his extraordinary vanity: “.. strong with the weak and weak (deflated for some!!..) with the strong..”.  ​ Without fear of going against the tide, the author uses his expertise as a senior leader, backed by the scientific rigor of the engineer (which is also his trademark), with an impressive and documented knowledge of the History of the United States, to “try to understand the present and future motivations not only of the United States, but, symmetrically, of the European leaders and strategy.”  ​In the first part, the author uses a historical analogy by examining the parallels to the political and social plans between the Athens of the 5th century BC, that of Pericles and the “Golden Age”, and the United States of the 21st century. There are many similarities between Trump and Pericles: they both rely directly on the people, consider their strategies of alliances and empires in the same approach, are supported by powerful real wealth (money, oil), with the same ability to mobilise the popular electorate beyond the “deep state” … “Them against us …” and finally a certain caution vis-à-vis wars to consolidate the support of the people. However, if the success of this first year of TRUMP’s return is quite flamboyant, as evidenced by the Wall Street party, the wait-and-see attitude is flagrant on the side of companies, and the American threat continues to weigh on the future of world GDP, without forgetting the end of the story for Athens, with the reminder of the “Thucydite trap”. However, “This framework makes it possible to understand the structuring dynamics of the United States as well as the logic underlying the actions of the Trump Administration.”  ​The second part highlights: “the key issues, in particular the relations between the elites and the people, as well as the role of politics in the economic system and vis-à-vis the Central Banks in the US and in EUROPE.” In this context, the author develops his very well-argued vision (and produced in his previous works) of the independence and sovereignty of the Central Banks, or of the “symbol of inaction: Debt”, and the discrepancy between speeches and situations.  ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​Faced with the change in cooperation between China and the United States, the author’s conviction remains that “Europe must imperatively reaffirm the primacy of politics, by and for the citizen. ​This is the great existential challenge that can only be met by reinventing itself in depth. ​ A particularly valuable publication for all audiences and for those who seek to predict the winners and losers of “Trumponomics”. ​Jean-louis CHAMBON  ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​Founding President of the ​ cercle ​ ​ TURGOT ,Hubert RODARIE is President of AF2i, Vice President of ARGAN – former Managing Director of an insurance group. He regularly contributes to the economic and scientific press. Author of four particularly notable books, and winner of the Turgot-DFCG Prize in 2016.

Since the pioneering works of Mc Luhan and Patino, the theme of “negligence” has become a social debate. ​​This book has the merit of not limiting negligence to simple attention defects due in particular to the attraction of screens or algorithmic black boxes. ​​It extends to all daily actions, professional behaviors and social attitudes. ​​The subtitle of the book, “an economy of inattention”, betrays the ambition of the authors, which is to establish negligence as a scientific discipline. If they pay attention, the reader of the book will discover that there are culpable, natural, rational or irrational negligence … but also, comfortable (when they save time)  ​and desirable (when they are affected). ​​The reader will distinguish between the negligent intellectuals, manual workers, civil servants, the credulous, the overwhelmed, the tired, the drowsy, etc. They will understand that negligence cannot be avoided in the democratic game, the management of organizations and the functioning of society, but that, in some cases, it contributes to new inventions or creations. ​​The forms of  ​negligence are diversified under the effects of digital platforms that practice nudge (soft influence), deploy dark patterns (internet traps) or offer too many “good deals”. The authors do not limit themselves to practical cases, they decline the negligence of intellectuals, decision-makers, the credulous, the tired… but also of citizens and elected representatives caught up in the democratic game, thus demonstrating a penetrating sense of  ​current events.  ​​ The book therefore deserves the attention of citizens-consumers for the originality of its subject, the relevance of its observations and the quality of its style. ​​Perhaps it is in turn negligent in not analyzing the psychological and psychoanalytical causes of negligence, as well as in not assessing its destructive effects of value at the level of a family, a company or a country. M. BACACHE-BEAUVALLET is a professor at ENS and Telecom Paris. ​​F. BENHAMOU is Professor Emeritus at the University of Paris-Nord and Sciences Po Paris. ​​She is president of the Cercle des économistes. Jean-Jacques Pluchart

Navi Radjou is one of the theorists of “frugal economy”, a term he introduced in 2013 with his bestseller entitled “Jugaad Innovation” (which means “ingenuity” in Hindi). ​​This “art of doing more with less” is, according to him, one of the remedies for the ills of the French economy, which is simultaneously anemic, divided and over-indebted. ​​Frugality consists of making better use of dynamic capacities (creativity and flexibility) and existing natural and human resources. ​​This development must not only be economic, but also social, cultural, ecological and democratic. ​​It must be part of a process of “systemic transition” and “regenerative growth”.  ​​”Democratic regeneration”, however, presupposes that elected representatives and voters no longer reason in terms of ideologies or doctrines, but rather in terms of the real effects of the measures voted on and sometimes applied. The author provides numerous examples of companies and countries that are striving to mobilize such an approach based on the sharing of resources between companies and administrations in the same region (thus redefining the “French industrial districts”), on a “distributed production” between local networks, on a “hyperlocal value chain” (reducing the distances between production and consumption areas), and on a “triple regeneration” (of people, goods and the planet). ​​The application of these new lessons in industrial economics could be facilitated by the use of AI, which would make it possible to better inventory resources, model their synergies and simulate the effects of their combinations. Navi Radjou thus engages in a skillful re-reading of the concepts and practices experimented, with more or less success, aimed at developing the circular economy, the relocation of factories, the rehabilitation of short circuits, the search for economic and social synergies, etc. It therefore seems that “jugaad innovation” is the art of re-accommodating the old recipes for managing organizations and life in society. Navi Radjou is a professor of management at the University of Cambridge and is vice-president of the American consulting firm Forrester. Jean-Jacques Pluchart

The collective work, edited by Sandra Bertezene, ​​  ​​prefaced by Cynthia Fleury  ​​and introduced and concluded by Philippe Naszalyi, is part of the current, very fertile, research devoted to the economics of well-being and care. ​​As the recent debates in the French parliament on the social security budget have shown, the issues of the organisation of care and social solidarity are now at the centre of public debates.  ​​This is why reading this impressive pioneering work in this essential field will help to make both elected officials and voters more aware of the challenges of establishing a true “health democracy”. In this book, the 56 researchers, practitioners and hospital patients have presented their reflections, organised their discussions and formulated their proposals, covering the 6 dimensions of the issue: participation, knowledge, associative engagement, partnerships, recommendations and ethical vigilance.  ​​These dimensions were then broken down into 28 chapters, classified into 6 parts, devoted respectively to the role of users in health policies, the place of experiential knowledge in the health system, the commitment of users, the partnership models developed in France and abroad, the proposal of a work agenda, feedback, and finally whistleblowers and digital tools. Several authors propose action plans which generally present 4 main stages: to make the medical and social world aware of the challenges of better solidarity through communication campaigns (this is the purpose of the book); to give better access to existing public, private and especially associative resources; to co-construct new medical, paramedical and support resources, in particular with the assistance of Artificial Intelligence; to encourage the creation of jobs in practically all the functions of the care economy. The book provides an illuminating overview of the hospital and para-hospital world, but, above all, it delivers a message that is both obvious and original: to restore democracy in the health sector, following the example of the social model instituted by the French founders of social security, some of whose principles have been misappropriated for 80 years. Sandra Bertezene and Cynthia Fleury are professors of management sciences at CNAM. ​​Philippe Naszalyi is Professor Emeritus and Director of the Journal of Management Sciences. Jean-Jacques Pluchart